In Memory: Memorial Day

Memorial Day has become, for many people, just another 3-day weekend. The Uniform Holidays Bill, passed in 1968 and made a federal law in 1971, moved Memorial Day from May 30th to the last Monday of May. Now, I have nothing against a 3-day weekend and Memorial Day specifically, but with the ongoing “war” in Iraq and our troops still in Afghanistan I feel compelled to talk about a couple of issues.

First a little history about Memorial Day:

• Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. While there is much debate about where and when the tradition started, it began during the American Civil War.
• General John A. Logan, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, officially proclaimed Decoration Day in 1868. Flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery that May 30th.
• The name Memorial Day was first used in 1882; however, it was not commonly called this until after World War II. The holiday was officially given the name Memorial Day by federal law in 1967.
• President Lyndon Johnson officially declared Waterloo, N.Y., as the official birthplace of Memorial Day in 1966.
• You can find more information on the holiday at History.com.

In my opinion, the people who have and who are serving this country deserve our respect. However, while we may have had a reason to attack Afghanistan, I see no compelling or valid reason for our invasion of Iraq. We have bankrupted this nation, ruined our reputation with the rest of the world, and are destroying the lives of an entire generation not to mention what has happened to the lives of the Iraq citizens. Yes, I know, Saddam Hussein is gone (a good thing), but their country is in chaos now.

So, I salute and thank those that are serving this country. I am humbled by the sacrifices of those who have served. I deeply wish we could bring our men and women home from Iraq. I hope that the leaders of this country do not send us on yet another mission by invading yet another nation. I ask that they honor those who serve by bringing our troops home.

Sunset Photos

Every photographer has favorite subjects. One of mine is when the sun is starting to go down. The range of colors shifts to the warm side of the spectrum and everyday things take on a whole new look. Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite images with you. Hope you like them.

Truth, Lies & Chain E-Mails

I recently received a “chain” e-mail from a friend that contains a great amount of misinformation. Such e-mails get passed all over the internet and are accepted as the facts when in truth they are anything but. They are designed to look legitimate by inserting a few facts amongst a ton of disinformation. These e-mails work on the theory that if you tell a lie enough times it becomes the truth.

The e-mails also include an appeal to “share this with everyone” you know/like/care about. In my opinion this makes them a type of electronic virus. In reality we are only hurting ourselves by spreading such junk around.

So, how do you tell fact from fiction? Well for one there is a great source of true information at The Annenberg Political Fact Check. Their goal is to keep everyone honest by printing the truth. Another source for the facts can be found at the Urban Legends Reference Page. If you want to double-check everything, then you can also go to Truth or Fiction.

Right now there are a lot of political e-mails flying around the internet. Each side in this election year wants to prove that they are better than the other guy or gal. They need to show that they are the hero and that the other is some type of scum. The reality is that there are no knights on white horses. They are politicians and therefore all the same.

Here’s the next urban myth that’s starting to make the rounds: homeowners unable to pay their mortgage are walking away from their homes. In fact the lenders are spreading this lie to take the blame off of themselves for getting greedy and either deceiving their borrowers and or making loans they had no business making in the first place. The only ones walking away from homes right now are investors who purchased the home to make a ton of money.

So, if the e-mail sounds sensational and appeals to you to share it with everyone, please do us all a favor and find out if there is any validity to it at all before you hit that send button.

Biofuels: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Just about everyone realizes that oil is not a renewable resource, at least not at the rate that we are consuming it. The industrialized nations are sucking oil back at incredible rates. One estimate by the International Energy Agency printed here in April 2004 shows a consumption of 75 million barrels a day. A more recent estimate extracted here from the CIA World Factbook in June 2007 shows a consumption of 82,234,918 barrels per day. There is also quite a bit of debate on how much oil is really left that we can get to. Check out this post here and this interesting analysis of production vs. consumption. No matter what, the world needs to go on an oil diet and find another way to generate power.

Worldwide many nations are using some form of biofuel already. Here in America the talk is all about ethanol from corn. However, corn is a negative return for energy; in other words, it takes more energy to make ethanol from corn that what you get out of it. Here’s a report from the Washington Post and another blog here which outline some of the problems. Wikipedia has an excellent article on biofuels which goes into much great detail that I have room for here.

There are many possible sources for biofuels: corn (a poor choice), sugar cane (used by Brazil), switchgrass (I saw a show on the History Channel that showed excellent returns from this source), and even algae (some tout this as the perfect solution). Personally, I don’t think we should use a source for biofuel that is also a food crop because there are too many people on this planet without enough to eat or without affordable food available to them.

Perhaps one of the best solutions for our fuel problem was patented in 1892 by Rudolf Diesel. The original diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil (peanut oil). Today you can purchase a kit to convert your diesel engine vehicle to run on vegetable oil. You may even be able to get your vegetable oil for free. Most restaurants that fry food have to pay to dispose of their used oil. They are usually more than glad to have someone take it away for free. Not sure, check out this article on using vegetable oil as fuel.

Next car I buy may just have a diesel engine. Now, where is the nearest hamburger stand?

It IS the economy stupid

I came across this political cartoon the other day by Corky Trinidad and it got me to thinking about what this country would be like if all the Iraq war money went to something else.

First, do you know how much money the United States is spending on the war? zFacts has an interesting chart that updates continuously and a few frightening facts. Here is an excerpt from an article at The Coloradoan “The Iraq War is costing more than $400,000 for each troop in the field. We are spending over $240,000 per minute for this war. The war costs each American household $138 per month. By 2017, the United States will have paid $1 trillion in interest on money borrowed to finance the war. This nation deserves better.”

Now, what can you do with $1 trillion dollars? Here are some suggestions from an article in The New York Times :

• Public health: treat every American whose diabetes or heart disease is unmanaged plus a global campaign to immunize millions of children.
• Education: Universal preschool for every three and four year-old child in the U.S.
• Rebuild New Orleans
• Real national security: we could put into place all those recommendations by the 9/11 Commission that haven’t been done

All of this could be done and we’d have some money left over! Or, how about this? Instead of a puny little “economic stimulus” check (my $300 should cover about 3 tanks of gas, if I’m lucky) the government could send every American enough money to REALLY stimulate the economy!

Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes have published a book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War.” This book should be must reading for all of us because it details the true costs of the war in Iraq. The war is a legacy that will be with us for several generations as we deal with the debt the nation has incurred and the massive number of wounded veterans that will need continuous medical care.

As a nation we need to wake up and smell the coffee because someone has left the pot on the burner for too long. There is an election coming up in November. Let’s hope we can do some good then.

Affordable Health Insurance

A good friend of mine is recovering from a much needed but complex surgical procedure. While she is facing a bit of time recovering, the surgery has resolved a situation that was causing her considerable pain. My friend is also fortunate in that she has health insurance. For many of us here in the United States having health insurance is a luxury we can’t afford.

I’m one of those people who does not have health insurance. It has been about seven years since I’ve had any - either the company I’ve worked for in the past didn’t offer it or, primarily, because I’m self-employed I can’t afford it. Oh sure, I’ve responded to who knows how many ads for “Affordable Health Insurance” only to find that my home mortgage is less than what they want for useful health insurance. I said useful insurance because you can get a little bit of nothing, and mostly useless insurance, for $100 to $200 per month, but the type of coverage I had years ago working for a corporation generally starts at $500 or more a month.

I’ve also got a friend who moved to Scotland several years ago to attend college. His wife and children moved with him while he works on his degrees. Recently he found out that his oldest son has autism. This is what he said in a recent e-mail to me: “He's [my friend’s son] been getting tons of help thanks to the blessing of universal health care (why this isn't a political no-brainer back home I'll never understand).”

I’ve got to admit the lack of some type of universal health care system is something I’ve been wondering about. My guess is that the pharmaceutical and insurance corporations are keeping their politicians well fed and away from that topic. Besides, as long as members of Congress have lifetime insurance benefits why should they care about people like me?

The United States probably can’t do what most European countries have done, but there has to be a way to make health insurance affordable to the average American. Big corporations get discounts because of the number of employees they have. How about a program that is nation-wide for all of the people like me? Lump us all together and give us a group discount!

Personally, I’d rather have insurance than worry about loosing everything I have to illness.

Pictures from home

Every human, every plant, every animal, everything we have ever known has come from one place: Earth. We argue over borders, fight over territory, and pollute the land, soil, water, and air. It is our only home. We think of it as limitless, with endless resources available for us. It is not. Earth is a lovely planet, but it is finite and fragile. To help illustrate this I have collected a series of images of our home -- from near to far. Each image has a link back to its source if you want more information on the picture.

The first image was taken from orbit by a satellite. What you are looking at is the ocean in the vicinity of the Bahamas. The Web site is "Earth As Art".

This next picture was also taken from Earth orbit by the crew of the International Space Station. Here you can see some of the curve of the planet.
Now we've moved out of Earth orbit. This picture was taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts during one of their orbits of the moon. What a lovely, blue world.
We continue to move out in space away from Earth. This image was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. For more information about this image you can also read this article from the National Geographic News. The image you see here has been greatly enlarged - go to the Mars Global Surveyor link to see the actual image.
This last picture is part of the first family photo ever taken of the planets of our solar system. You are looking at home from 6.4 billion kilometers away. Earth is a pale, blue dot less than the size of a pixel. Click on the image to view the whole family.